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「結成シャドウガーデン」 (Kessei Shadou Gaaden)
“Shadow Garden is Born”
Now that weird interludes are out of the way, it’s time to get into what Eminence in Shadow is all about – and yeah, you know exactly what this one is going to be about. It’s all isekai all the time for this particular story, though if you thought that’s what was only on tap best think again. Nothing says lots of fun and games like a little chuunibyou draped in irony. Plenty of irony.
Considering the premise of Eminence in Shadow, there’s some humour in how unassuming it is at the moment. At first glance you could easily discard this one as just another isekai. Truck-kun visiting his blessings on another child? Check. Increasingly ubiquitous reincarnation as completely aware baby? Always within reach. Unique family situation well-endowed with even more unique characters? I thought you’d never ask. If it wasn’t for synopsis I’d think I was looking at Ansatsu Kizoku, but such similarities remain skin deep as details emerge. Cid’s family for example sticks to the noble path of knighthood, sister Claire is technically the family prodigy (regardless of reality), and Mama Kagenou is definitely both brawn and brains. In other words, your usual isekai family affair, only now with different names.
Where the real differences lie are with Cid himself and that, shall we say, overactive imagination. As the first episode teased Cid styles himself as a puppet master, the man pulling the strings of anyone and everyone. Like any wannabe secret organization leader he keeps these activities hidden from everyone else, but gets his first chance to revel in the fantasy once elf Alpha enters the fray. And enter she does. Eagerly. It might be a little too convenient to have Cid’s ad libs about a cult seeking the resurrection of the demon king Diabolos wind up being reality, but hey, I’m not about to turn my nose up at well-applied comedy, especially when it’s a double-sided affair (I love the shades of Overlord here). Between Cid conjuring up an actual threat and Alpha and company fully believing in it, there’s a lot of room for some serious humour later on, particularly once the whole descendants of heroes thread is unraveled. After all, we already have one sister teasing such an origin, and with a shota complex to boot!
A few more episodes will certainly be needed to see just what Eminence in Shadow will get up to this season, but if first (second?) impressions are anything to go by, this one is going to be a very wild ride.
Shadow adlibbing his way to glory!
can’t put my finger on it, but this adaptation doesn’t quite manage to capture what made the source manga so fun
That’s my impression too. The anime is doing a very correct job, but I think it lacks “something”.
I feel that the manga has a better flair for the dramatic, be it the shadowy action or the exaggerated reactions of Shadow and the comedy of his misunderstandings. Manga!Shadow feels more epic and, at the same time, more stupid, whereas Anime!Shadow feels more toned down and more of a “standard” Isekai hero… up to a point.
good point and i agree, the anime has made him more like the average isekai MC and reduced the characteristics that made him unique.
alas.
I think the anime made comedic scenes too clean. In the source material where Cid were taking on the bandits is an over the top manner, there was a conspicuous arrow labelling Cid as an “The Protagonist” to juxtapose Cid as a character. There are others, but I think the show at this point still adapts the source material competently and hopefully when the comedy bits begin hitting their stride, the anime will let it flow.
The anime skipped out some intro parts showing how exactly Cid died in the real world, which illustrated the extent of his delusional nature.
Basically that night he’d been banging his head on a tree in the forest, “training to unlock his inner magic powers”. Then as he’s staggering out of the woods, he sees these bright lights and runs towards it thinking it must be his incoming magic. The bright lights were in fact Truck-kun’s headlights, and the rest is history.